


Charybdis

by GremlinSR



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fuinjutsu, Good Akatsuki (Naruto), Good Orochimaru (Naruto), Jounin-sensei Itachi, Jounin-sensei Tsunade, Konoha shinobi in Uzushio, M/M, Nara Shikamaru-centric, Orochimaru thinks parenthood involves cloning yourself, Please don't repost my works :(, Plot, Romance, So much Canon Divergence, Uchiha Itachi-centric, Umino is an Uzushio clan, Uzumaki everywhere, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village Never Fell, he wasn't ready for this, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:08:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24189427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GremlinSR/pseuds/GremlinSR
Summary: After the fall of Konohagakure, Uzushio offered refuge to the survivors and then erected a barrier around the island so powerful it held against the might of three armies. Thirty years later, the Great Barrier is degrading and Uzukage Kushina Uzumaki must prepare her village to enter the international arena after decades of isolation.It’s up to the younger generation to prove the strength of Uzushio and prevent the Elemental Nations from descending into another war.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Nara Ensui - background, Hatake Sakumo/Orochimaru - background, Hyuuga Hinata/Utakata - background, Momochi Zabuza/Uchiha Itachi, Nara Shikamaru/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 58
Kudos: 333





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far this is mostly written from Itachi and Shikamaru's POV with a few others sprinkled in here or there. Since the basis of this AU is that most of Konoha died sometime during the second shinobi war, there will be characters that either died or were never born. Also, history played out much differently for both the Elemental Nations as a whole and some individual characters. Those differences will become clearer as time goes on in the story.
> 
> I hope this keeps the boredom away for at least a little while and that you're all staying safe and healthy. :)

> Charybdis is a sea monster in Greek mythology. Subsequent scholarship has suggested that it was based on a whirlpool in the Strait of Messina. ~[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charybdis)

The morning sun was doing its best to dry the puddles that were still stubbornly holding their ground, remnants of the storm that had kept Itachi up the night before with its howling winds and cracks of thunder. 

Or, to be precise, the storm that had kept Sasuke up, which meant Itachi was up, too. His annoying little brother hadn’t wanted to admit he was still afraid of storms, but Itachi could always tell when Sasuke was upset. He had made them tea that they drank while watching lightning arc across the sky.

Itachi paused at the edge of the terrace that his family’s home was built on, carved halfway up and into the side of a small mountain. There were branches strewn about the damp paths and streets below. A few felled trees had damaged roofs but for the most part, Uzushiogakure was unharmed by the squall. 

The sea was calm, stained a muddy green close to shore from the detritus that had been picked up by churning waves, but fading back into a perfect sapphire blue further out, where it twisted into the eddies that his country was named for.

The port hadn’t taken much damage and the bright white towers that crowded up against the boardwalk and jutted into the sky seemed untouched. The seals etched into their foundations and walls kept them safe from the elements and they stretched out across the meandering line of the bay and back up against the hills and mountains that shaped the curve of the village, their red, blue, and orange roofs a riot of color. 

Itachi took one more moment to breathe air heavy with the scents of salt and fish before stepping onto the staircase cut into the side of Konoha Hill. It zigzagged down the mountain, branching off at points to lead to other residential areas and training grounds. Itachi stayed on the main staircase, steps measured and sure on the rain-slickened surface.

His lips twitched up into a smile when he heard footsteps clattering behind him. “Itachi! Wait up!”

He didn’t slow, trusting Sasuke to catch up to him without trouble. A moment later Sasuke landed next to him, cheeks red with exertion and puffed out in annoyance. “Why’d you leave without me?” 

Itachi raised a brow at the whine in his voice but didn’t comment. His father did enough scolding for the both of them. “I told you I could not be late this morning, as I am meeting with Kushina-shishou and other important members of the village. That you were not ready when it was time to leave is not my problem.”

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his lower lip out. Itachi casually reached out with two fingers and poked him in the forehead, ignoring Sasuke’s indignant flailing. “Itachi! I told you to stop doing that.”

Itachi just hummed, already distracted by thoughts of what the day may hold for him. Kushina-shishou had been acting oddly for weeks. At first, she’d just seemed down, depressed almost, which was in itself more than vaguely alarming. Despondency was not a good look on any Uzumaki, but especially not on what some would call _the_ Uzumaki.

Then one day he’d walked into the Uzukage’s office to a flurry of activity. She’d been leaning over a sealing array too complex for Itachi to decipher outside of it being some sort of barrier. She had grinned up at him, violet eyes glinting in a way that generally meant he was about to be assigned some terrible chore.

“Itachi-kun! My cute little successor, I’ll need you to do my paperwork for the next few weeks. I’ve got to work on a project, ya know!”

The verbal tic was enough of a clue for Itachi to know that something big was happening, and his master was obviously not ready to tell him about it. So he’d simply sighed and sat at his desk, the paperwork rising above him in a wobbly column that looked ready to fall at any moment.

It seemed, however, that Kushina was finally ready to tell him and the rest of her advisors what was going on. 

Next to him, Sasuke was complaining about his rival’s unfair exception for early graduation. “He’s not any better at ninjutsu or taijutsu than me, Itachi-nii! He only gets to graduate early because he’s the Uzukage’s son.”

Itachi just hummed, having already heard the complaints from both his father and Sasuke multiple times. Uzushiogakure, unlike other hidden villages, had a strict policy of not allowing students to graduate to genin - and consequently become active members of the military - until they were thirteen.

Itachi himself had been pulled from the Academy at six, but he’d become the apprentice to the Uzukage, mostly because they weren’t sure what else to do with him. When he had turned thirteen he’d been put on a genin team with some of his peers but before that he hadn’t gone on active missions. 

In other words, he’d been doing Kushina-shishou’s paperwork since he was six years old. 

“If Kushina-shishou is letting Naruto graduate early there is a good reason for it,” Itachi said for the ninth time that week.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest and looked away with a huff. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

Itachi raised a brow and stepped onto the cobblestone path at the foot of the staircase that led into the heart of the village. “I am. Which is why I’m preventing you from saying something to Naruto that will make you feel like a fool later.”

Sasuke opened his mouth, presumably to whine some more, but was cut off by two blurs leaping off the tall retaining wall to their right and slamming into him.

“Augh!” Sasuke said as he staggered, struggling to keep his balance.

The two giggling children clung onto him. “Big brother Sasukeeeee! Surprise!”

A tall woman with light brown hair stepped out from around a bush. She was smiling, green eyes crinkling at the corners as she watched her daughters with fondness. “Forgive me, Sasuke, they wanted to sneak out early and show you how well their stealth training is going.”

Sasuke sighed but he was fighting a smile as he tried to detach the two little terrors from his person. “It’s fine.”

Itachi nodded to her. “Stepmother. Are you well this morning?”

Ikuko patted the swell of her stomach. “Oh, yes, little Nikko has been behaving himself.”

The twins let go of Sasuke and Itachi braced himself just before they slammed into his legs. He looked down into two sets of mismatched eyes - each of them had one black and one green - and smiled. “Naho, Nami. You did well.”

They grinned up at him. “We’re Uchiha! Of course, we did,” Naho said with a sniff, though her attempt to be haughty was slightly hindered by the lisp she’d been struggling with since losing both front teeth.

“Yeah,” Nami said with a firm nod, ever the quiet one.

“You do your family proud,” Itachi said solemnly to their apparent delight.

“Come,” Ikuko said. “We will walk with your brothers as far as the Academy, and then we must go to the market.”

Itachi frowned. “Are you sure you should be carrying groceries up the hill on your own?”

“That’s why we’re coming, silly!” Naho said, then flexed her thin arm. “We’re super strong, so we’re mommy’s big helpers.” Nami nodded and Sasuke grinned.

“How lucky I am to have two strong sisters to keep the family running,” Sasuke said before swooping down and picking them both up, slinging one over each shoulder.

They screeched in delight as he took off down the path in the direction of the main road. Itachi shared a look with Ikuko before offering her his arm. She wrapped her own around it and leaned against him instead of simply placing her hand on his elbow. 

“Ah, Itachi-kun, such a gentleman,” she teased lightly. “Truly the epitome of Uchiha.” 

He scoffed and they set off after Sasuke and the twins. His stepmother may be an Uchiha now, but she’d been a member of one of the many branch families of the Umino clan before marrying Fugaku. They weren’t quite as effusive as their cousin clan, the Uzumaki, but they were close. Ikuko was considered shy and reserved by their standards but she still had nothing on the Uchiha.

“If you say it, it must be true,” he said and his lips twitched when she laughed. Their footsteps sounded hollow as they made their way across one of the many foot traffic bridges that spanned the Uzumaki river, which cut straight through the middle of the village and emptied out into the bay. Usually, the river was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. Today, however, it was full of debris and was a greenish-brown color, another vestige of last night’s storm.

His siblings had stopped in the middle of the bridge and Sasuke was holding the girls up carefully so they could look over the railing at the water below. They were chattering excitedly before both of them went ominously silent. Then Nahu screamed, loud and long, distressed rather than her usual happy squeals.

Itachi released Ikuko and flickered to their side, adrenalin sharpening his senses. “What is it?”

Nahu pointed down at the water. “There’s a doggy down there! He - he’s stuck in the water. He just went under. Big brother, we have to save him,” she wailed just as Ikuko caught up to them.

Itachi hesitated only a moment, but then Nahu turned to look at him, her mismatched eyes watery and pleading. He sighed and removed his white and blue haori, handing it to Ikuko before leaping up on the railing. They’d attracted attention but he ignored the onlookers who had moved closer at Nahu’s screams and activated his Sharingan.

It took only a moment to spot the dog. It was medium-sized, and though it struggled to stay above water it kept getting knocked around by debris and pulled under by the rapids, which were more treacherous than usual with the runoff.

He launched himself off the railing, his loose pants flapping against his legs, the wrappings on his ankles and thighs keeping them mostly in place. He landed neatly on the surface of the river, adjusting his chakra flow without conscious thought. Children learned how to walk on water almost as soon as they could mold chakra in Uzushio.

He bounded forward with two short leaps to where he’d last seen the dog. There was no sign of him now and Itachi sighed at the ribbing his master was sure to give him before taking a breath and diving beneath the surface.

It was just as difficult to see as he’d expected, but he was an elite jounin of Uzushio and was almost as dangerous in the water as he was out of it, and he had the Sharingan.

It took only a moment to locate where the dog was in the swirling mass of sediment and tree branches. He swam towards the body, which had gone worryingly limp, knocking obstacles out of his way with chakra-laced palm strikes. 

A few moments later his hand grasped fur and he tucked the body under his arm before moving towards the surface. He carefully pulled himself up until he was standing on the water and looked down at his charge. He didn’t think it was breathing.

He hesitated, not willing to appear in front of his sisters with a dead dog, but then realized it would probably be fine if they removed the water from its lungs. It hadn’t been that long since it took its last breath. 

It only took three large jumps to make it back to the bridge - he’d drifted a bit in the current - and to his stepmother. He laid the dog down and she carefully knelt beside him. “Poor thing,” she murmured, taking in the cuts littering its body and the way one of its legs was sitting at an odd angle.

“Will it be okay, mommy?” Nami asked, arm wrapped around her sobbing twin. Even Sasuke seemed concerned. 

There was a small crowd around them, now, all of them straining to see what had sent the Uzukage’s apprentice diving into a storm-swollen river.

Ikuko smiled and settled a green-lit hand against the dog’s side. A moment later it began hacking, water leaking from its mouth. The twins both dashed to its head, crooning and petting at its face, though it only opened its eyes for a moment before they rolled into the back of its head and it passed out.

Ikuko was already healing the worst of its cuts. “We’ll need to take him to Tsume and her daughter for the rest. I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with canine anatomy to do more than deal with the surface injuries.”

“I’ll take him,” Sasuke said. “Itachi has a meeting with the Uzukage and her advisors but it’s not a huge deal if I miss one morning of classes.”

Itachi frowned. Sasuke was right - he was top of his class, one morning of missed classes wouldn’t hurt. Still, he hated the thought of putting his own needs above his brother’s.

“Sasuke’s right. Shikamaru will let Iruka-sensei know what happened, and he’ll catch him up on what he missed, too.” Itachi looked over at the person who had just ambled up to their little party and nodded once at Nara Shikaku. His son was next to him, eyes half-lidded but looking at the dog with interest.

Sasuke seemed less than impressed with the offer, probably because Nara Shikamaru was in the bottom half of the class rankings. Of course, Sasuke still needed some practice at looking underneath the underneath, as Kakashi-taicho would say. If Shikamaru wanted, he could be at the top of the class by a landslide. He just preferred to coast.

“I appreciate it,” Itachi said as he got to his feet, making room for Sasuke to carefully pick up the dog.

“Well, let’s get him to Hana’s clinic, then,” Ikuko said as she stood. “Come on, girls, we’ll have to do our shopping later.”

They scrambled to their feet and ran to hug Itachi, uncaring of his soggy clothes. Shikaku took his clean haori from Ikuko with a small grin, probably amused at the thought of the unflappable Uchiha heir showing up to a meeting of the highest officials in the village after taking a dunk in the Uzumaki River.

He patted their heads as they thanked him profusely for saving the ‘cute little doggy.’ The things he did for his siblings. Ikuko mouthed her own thanks before herding all three of the children away. Itachi sighed and pulled a scroll out of his pocket. “Please give me one moment, and I will walk with you and Shikamaru to the Administrative District.”

“Sure, kid,” Shikaku said, looking for all the world like being late to a meeting with the Uzukage didn’t bother him. It probably didn’t.

Itachi flickered to the end of the bridge, where there was a group of bushes that would hide him from sight. He unsealed the extra set of clothes he always carried with him - one never knew when you’d need them when Uzumaki Kushina was your master - and quickly changed into the fresh pants and shirt. His Uzushio blue jounin vest was a lost cause and smelled distinctly of river water and he sealed it with his wet clothes.

There was nothing to be done with his hair or the smell of algae on his skin. He rejoined Shikaku and his son, ignoring the way Shikaku’s eyes lingered on his wet hair with obvious amusement.

“Shall we?” Shikaku said and Itachi nodded, accepting his haori and slipping it on. He felt naked without his jounin vest but the haori helped. It had enough seals sewn into its lining to protect him from an Iwa-made explosive tag or ten. 

It had been a gift from Kushina-shishou and Minato-sensei on his fifteenth birthday, which was also when he’d been given the promotion of jounin. 

Shikaku wasn’t much of a talker, so the three of them walked in silence most of the way. Soon after crossing the Konoha bridge they entered the city, the high rise buildings towering above them, the bustle of the streets forcing them to walk in a row instead of clustered together so as not to crowd the sidewalks. 

Most of the stores they passed had already opened and food carts and stalls selling their wares were lined along the middle of the streets. Carts and horses weren’t allowed to use streets in the shopping district during daylight, as that space was reserved for merchants from outside of Whirlpool Country that came for trade.

Each stall had a glittering seal on it and every foreigner had a temporary seal painted on their hand. The seals allowed them to enter and leave the barrier that surrounded the island without dying horribly. To get an entrance tag, merchants had to pass rigorous security measures and they were always good for only one pass in and one pass out of the barrier.

It wasn’t perfect, but it did keep large forces from gaining access to Whirlpool. For the most part, they only had to worry about kidnapping and assassination plots as opposed to being razed to the ground.

They eventually made it to the quieter section of the city that held all the administration buildings. While the shopping district was stuffed full of civilians, most of the people there were shinobi, civilian government workers, or students attending one of the Academies. Shikamaru waved half-heartedly at them before moving towards the Genin Academy, shoulders slumped.

Shikaku shook his head. “You’d think I was sending him to his execution.”

Itachi’s lips turned up into a small smile. “He will make a fine shinobi, just like his father and uncle.” It was well known that Ensui and Shikaku had been just as recalcitrant in their younger years.

Shikaku hummed. “Much to his displeasure.”

They passed the hospital and Medical Division Academy, which took up a whole high-rise on its own, before turning right to enter the tallest building in Uzushio. It rose above the others by a good three stories, its roof tiled in oranges, blues and reds, the Uzumaki spiral fluttering in the breeze on the enormous tapestry that hung from the top balcony.

They looked at each other, then both leaped, using small lips built into the side of the tower for this very purpose to scale the side of the building. They reached the balcony at the same time, landing in a bow before the Third Uzukage of Uzushiogakure.

Kushina was wearing her white haori and the long string of white beads that had been passed down from Uzukage to Uzukage over the centuries. Each had a small seal etched into it in purple and shone against her red hair. 

She had her arms crossed over her chest and was tapping her foot impatiently. Minato-sensei stood at her right side, staring at her with a small, sappy smile. Uzumaki Tomoaki, the head of the Sealing Division, was at her right, his red and gold hair a riot around him and a severe frown on his face.

Nobody knew how an Uzumaki had turned out to have such a stern personality, but there was no argument that he was the best sealing master in the city outside of the Uzukage herself.

Itachi could see her council through the open double doors to her office, lounging in the plush chairs set strategically throughout the space and drinking tea. Hatake Sakumo, Senju Tsunade, Umino Leiko, and Uzumaki Haru were four of the oldest and most respected ninja in the village. Leiko and Haru were as old as the Second Uzukage would have been had he not died in the Second Great Siege. Sakumo and Tsunade didn’t have quite as many years under their belts, but they were certainly old enough to be granted a spot on the council.

Orochimaru was there, too, though he wasn’t officially part of the council. He was the head of the Science Division, though, and Itachi wondered what they could be talking about that required him and Tomoaki.

“You’re late!” Kushina scolded. “And you - is your hair wet, Itachi? Why do you smell like the river?”

Itachi sighed when Shikaku chuckled. “Sorry, Uzukage-sama. Itachi made us late when he stopped to save a poor soul from drowning.”

“What? Stand up, are you okay?” Itachi stood and let himself be fussed over by the strongest person in the village with the long-suffering patience of someone who had been her apprentice for years.

“I am fine, Kushina-shishou,” he said and pointedly didn’t react to Orochimaru and Sakumo’s snickers while she patted him down and made sad sounds over the state of his hair. The two of them deserved each other.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him over to Tsunade. “Tsunade, make sure my idiot apprentice didn’t give himself pneumonia.”

Tsunade set down her teacup with a sigh and moved to look him over. “He’s one of the strongest shinobi in the Elemental Nations, Kushina, I highly doubt a dip in the river hurt him.”

Itachi tipped his head at her even as he heard Shikaku start a rendition of the morning’s events.

“A dog! Oh, Itachi-kun, you’re such a sweet boy!” He held still and looked up at the ceiling when Kushina pulled him into a tight hug. “So cute!”

The door - the actual door, not the one leading to the balcony - opened and Umino Ikuo, grandson of Leiko, brother to Itachi’s own stepmother, and Head of Shinobi Education slipped inside. “Sorry I’m late, _someone_ decided a prank was the best way to react to the hard time he’s been getting from other students for being allowed early graduation. I had to keep my son from throttling yours for disturbing his class, Kushina-sama.”

Kushina sobered and stepped away from Itachi. “That’s part of why I’ve called you here,” she said, then glanced at Minato. He nodded once and moved to press his hand over one of the many seals glittering on the walls of the office. It was the highest level privacy array they had, sealing all sound into the room, which meant that whatever they were about to talk about, it was serious.

She turned and strode to her desk, taking a seat behind it. Minato’s face cleared of expression and he moved to stand behind her. Right now he was the General, not Minato-sensei. Everyone else felt the shift in the air and Itachi quickly found his own seat behind his desk while Tomoaki shut the balcony doors and curtains.

Kushina leaned forward and threaded her fingers together, resting her forearms on her clean desk. Itachi’s, of course, was covered in the paperwork that should have been there.

“When I was six years old, I was sent to live in Konohagakure.”

Itachi kept his face blank but inside he was reeling - he hadn't known that. The oldest members of their party didn’t look surprised by the information, however. They’d all been adults when Konoha fell.

“We don’t talk about it much, mostly because reminding some of the traditional fuddy-duddies in the village that I was once a citizen of Konohagakure would get them all to fussing, which is the last thing any of us wants.”

Sakumo snorted and Tsunade rolled her eyes. As the council, they had to deal with the older generation’s complaints about the power the 'outsiders' held in the village more than anybody else.

Kushina grinned before growing serious again. “You are all aware that Uzumaki Mito was the host of the jinchuuriki for many years. You also know the story we tell of how she designed the Great Barrier in only two days after fleeing Konoha with the rest of the refugees, then sealed the Nine-tails into it to power the strongest barrier ever made.”

Itachi frowned at her careful wording. The story they tell? Was the Kyuubi not the power behind the Great Barrier after all, then?

Kushina sighed and she looked so tired that Itachi wanted to kick the rest of the room out and insist she take a nap. Whatever the situation was, it had worn his master down badly.

“In reality, such a thing would be impossible. The Kyuubi is not a battery. He is made of chakra, true, but he has a soul, which means -”

“He needed a container,” Orochimaru said, sitting forward, looking interested in the proceedings for the first time since Kushina started talking.

Kushina grimaced and nodded. “Correct. While Kyuubi’s chakra is used to power the barrier, he must still reside in a container. Luckily for us, the Village had someone with the right type of chakra on hand since Aunt Mito had to give her life to activate the barrier seal. That is the reason I was sent to Konoha in the first place, to be trained by Mito to become the next jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. And when Kumo and Iwa attacked, I was one of the two hundred and fifteen refugees to make it to Uzushio, along with Aunt Mito.”

Ikuo sat forward in his seat, brow furrowed. “You were only eight when the barrier went up. So young.”

Kushina shrugged. “It was either me or my Uncle, and there was always the chance that he would reject the Kyuubi’s chakra at his age, even with the special chakra found in Uzumaki of the Main House. With an army at our doorstep, we couldn’t risk the Uzukage dying.”

“So if Mito sealed the fox into you, then what’s powering the barrier?” Leiko asked.

“While half of Kyuubi’s chakra stays in me, the other half is constantly being fed into the seals and techniques that make up the barrier as soon as it regenerates. You could say that I am only half a jinchuuriki.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Shikaku asked. “A lot of effort went into keeping this secret for so long.”

Kushina looked over at Tomoaki, who stood and folded his arms behind his back in response. “The barrier seal was never meant to be permanent. Uzumaki-hime intended for us to drop the barrier once the threat was gone. However, it was decided after the First Great Siege that we should keep it up as long as possible, as Kiri and Kumo were still quite hostile at the end of the war.”

“And then the Land of Whirlpool adopted an Isolationist Policy when it became clear that the remaining Four Great Nations would not leave us out of their wars,” Shikaku said slowly.

Kushina nodded. “That’s right. The Third Shinobi War started right on the heels of the Second as Fire Country territory was squabbled over and, sure enough, eleven years after the first siege came the second.”

Everyone who was old enough to remember those times winced. Itachi had only heard stories about it, but many had starved before Uzushio managed to destroy both the land and sea forces that had kept the island under siege for almost a year. If the barrier hadn’t existed, Uzushio would have gone the same way as her sister village.

“So we kept the barrier up and decided to stay out of the other nation’s petty squabbles, and it’s worked well for us. We’ve been able to recover our losses from that time and now we’re stronger than ever. But just like baby birds who have stayed too long under the wings of our parents, we’re about to be pushed from our nest,” Kushina said and Itachi pressed the tips of his fingers to his forehead. His master had a bad habit of using cheesy metaphors. 

“In what way?” Ikuo asked. 

“Thirty years after its creation, the seals that support the barrier have finally degraded to the point where they will soon fall. When that happens, there will be a chakra backlash that will kill me and take out half the village.” 

There were gasps around the room and even Itachi’s breath hitched at the picture she’d painted. He had already lost his mother, he could not stand the thought of losing Kushina as well. 

“So what are we going to do about it?” Itachi was almost surprised to hear his own voice, but he refused to believe Kushina was going to die.

Kushina slumped and tipped her head at Tomoaki again. He looked around the room, meeting each person’s gaze steadily. “We cannot replicate the barrier without moving the Kyuubi to a new vessel, which would kill Kushina-sama and result in the same problem ten to thirty years down the line. There is also always the chance when creating such a large, complicated sealing array and barrier technique combination that it could falter.”

“I’m guessing by ‘falter’ you mean ‘kill us all,” Orochimaru drawled and glared at Sakumo when he pinched his arm.

Tomoaki nodded. “If we disable the seal before it degrades, there will be no backlash. However, Kushina-sama’s system will probably not be able to handle the influx of the rest of Kyuubi’s chakra at her age, and she will die.”

Itachi’s desk buckled under his hand where he was gripping the wood too tightly and he forced himself to relax. If Kushina was really going to die, Minato-sensei wouldn’t look so calm.

“I’m ready to hear option number three,” Sakumo said and Kushina grinned.

“Go on, Tomoaki, don’t leave them in suspense.”

“After working on the problem for months, I believe Kushina-sama, General Minato, and I have come up with a solution: a second jinchuuriki to hold half of the Kyuubi’s chakra.”

“Naruto,” Ikuo breathed. 

Kushina’s lips pressed together and her eyes creased in the corners, the only sign that she was affected. “Yes. That is why we are allowing him to graduate a year early. In two months, he will become the jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi’s yin chakra. Tomoaki will then take him to one of the outer islands to learn to use and control the chakra for a year before returning to be placed on a genin team.”

There was a long pause, and then the room erupted. 

“He’s just a child,” Ikuo protested. “You can’t expect him to take on such a burden so young, Uzukage-sama!”

“But what of the barrier? How will we stand firm against the nations when they discover it is gone?” Haru asked.

“Split the chakra of the Kyuubi? How will you manage that without it escaping?”

“This is -”

“Enough!” Kushina’s voice was laced with heavy chakra and everyone froze. “Sit down and I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.”

Everyone lowered into their seats, looking more like recalcitrant children than the leaders of a village. Kushina drummed her fingers on the surface of her desk. “I’ve spoken to Naruto and he is ready and willing to take on this burden to keep us safe. It is not so bad as some of you may imagine.” She held up a hand when Ikuo opened his mouth. “I will hear no more on that subject. That is between my son, Minato and I.”

Ikuo’s face twisted but he didn’t argue. Kushina sighed. “It is true the Great Barrier will fall. However, Tomoaki and his team have come up with a secondary barrier that will be powered by my father’s Storm Seals. To be clear, this barrier will not be as strong, but it will keep our city from being overwhelmed while we deal with threats.”

She stood and leaned forward, pressing her weight against her fingertips on the desk. Her eyes flashed and her white beads fell forward with her hair, clacking together. “We are not the village we were twenty years ago. We have focused on growing stronger and smarter and have fully integrated the clans and shinobi of Konoha that survived into our village. We do not need a barrier to protect ourselves any longer and I plan to prove it.”

There was a long silence after her words rang across the room. Leiko cleared her throat. “How?”

Kushina sat back down and looked up at Minato. He stepped forward, expression just as determined as his wife’s. “In a year’s time, Suna will hold the chunin exams. We will enter two of our teams to compete.”

There were low murmurs around the room but Tsunade and Shikaku were smiling. “I see,” Shikaku said. “You plan to have our kids wipe the floor with theirs. That is why you put off holding internal exams this time.”

Kushina grinned. “Yep. We’re going to send Team Five and Team Eleven. I have no doubt they’ll make it into the final rounds, and when they do, I’ll show up to watch with Itachi and Utakata as my guards.” 

Itachi raised his brows. Team Five was Haku’s team, led by Momochi Zabuza. Team Six’s sensei was Tomoaki’s second in command in the Sealing Corps and had an Umino, an Uzumaki, and a first-generation kunoichi who was slated for specializing in assassination after making chunin. Both teams could be described in one word: devastating.

“Are you sure that’s wise? Rubbing their lost jinchuuriki and missing-nin in Kiri’s face is like throwing chum in the water,” Haru said with a deep frown.

“Throughout the last thirty years, Kiri and Kumo along with their various allies have tried to destroy us, steal our clan heirs, and sabotage our missions. We will show them that not only have they failed, but we have succeeded where they have not.”

“We did not steal Utakata, Momochi or Haku, we took them in as refugees,” Itachi pointed out.

“Exactly,” Kushina crowed. “Unlike them, we don’t have to steal their best shinobi - they’ll come to us because we’re the superior village. And since we don’t have any treaties signed with them, there’s nothing they can do about it.”

“Without treaties, there’s no recompense if they try to take them back,” Orochimaru said.

Kushina shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sure, but attacking our shinobi outright at the exams would force Suna to retaliate and break the treaty they have with them.”

“That doesn’t stop them from attempting other forms of sabotage.”

“Which is why we are sending two teams led by elite members of our village. I have full faith that any attempts on their lives will fail. They’ll be safe on the way there because nobody will know they’re coming and on the way back they’ll be traveling with me, Itachi, and Utakata. They’d be crazy to try something.”

“I doubt they will, anyway. Terumi only just came into power, and she’s struggling to prevent another civil war and keep her people from slaughtering each other. She won’t go starting something with another nation,” Leiko said with a flick of her fingers. 

Uzushio may be isolationist, but that didn’t mean their spy network wasn’t one of the best in the Elemental Nations, thanks to Jiraiya. The man was not officially an Uzushio shinobi, but he was loyal to Tsunade and Orochimaru.

“And what of the barrier?” Haru asked, wrinkles deepening with his frown. He tended to veer towards extreme isolationism, often arguing against allowing more merchants and trade into their village than was absolutely necessary. Out of everyone on the council, Kushina butted heads with him the most.

“We’ll try to keep it quiet that the Great Barrier fell and was replaced with a weaker one. However, secrets like that don’t stay secret for long. That’s why we must prove that we are strong enough to withstand attacks,” Kushina said. “Which is why we will offer to host the chunin exams two years from now.”

Haru stood so fast Itachi heard his joints pop. “That is madness! Opening our borders to the other villages is just asking for them to try something.”

Kushina’s smile was sharp and sent shivers down Itachi’s spine. “Oh, I’m counting on it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect much fluff and Itachi being stressed out because he's surrounded by crazy Uzumaki
> 
> Next chapter: Itachi gets a genin team


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stairs and jounin-sensei are the bane of Shikamaru's existence. Itachi was not prepared for his newest mission. All in all, it's a no good, very bad day for both of them.

_ One Year Later _

Shikamaru hated stairs. 

Unfortunately, living in an island city that was 40% mountain meant that he had to deal with them whenever he wanted to go anywhere. He sighed and looked up - and up - to where the Hashirama trees that Senju Tabito had grown for what was left of the Nara and Inuzuka clans were perched at the very top. 

Sasuke was already well up the hill, Ino an annoying shadow behind him. 

Why his father had agreed to build their clan house at the very top of one of the mountains (it was called a hill but really, it was part of the Uzu mountain range that formed a half-moon around the village), Shikamaru would never understand. Sure, the deer liked it but no one in their family save for his crazy mother wanted to deal with climbing hundreds of stairs every day. He sighed deeply and began the arduous ascent, trailing after Sasuke. 

“Ugh, stairs,” Shikamaru’s cousin, Sora, said with a sigh as he appeared next to him. His grey hair and black eyes may have marked him as a Hatake, but his attitude was all Nara. Shikamaru was so proud. 

“I know. Our parents are insane.”

“You’re telling me.”

They shared commiserating looks as Sasuke veered off onto the Terrace that held the Uchiha housing halfway up. Lucky bastard. 

There was only one large house there, built for Fugaku’s ever-growing brood. That man took repopulating his clan way too seriously. 

Sasuke’s family dog was dancing around him excitedly and both his sisters were climbing all over him when they finally caught up and climbed past his still-open gate. Shikamaru could hear the faint sound of a crying baby coming from the house, as well.

They walked in silence for a while longer, waving half-heartedly at Ino when she stepped off the stairs onto the path that led to the Yamanaka terrace. Her little sister was waiting for her there, bouncing with excitement. “Hi Shika-kun!” she yelled over Ino’s shoulder.

Shikamaru slumped and Sora snickered. “I see little Inao’s crush is alive and well.”

“She and Ino are so troublesome. She’s only seven, how is she already boy crazy?”

“Dad says Uncle Inoichi was the same way. Must run in the blood.”

Shikamaru shivered. “You’re lucky she was born a year after you. You don’t have to deal with a crazy Yamanaka in your class. I would feel sorry for Sasuke if he wasn’t such a brat.”

Sora just hummed and motioned towards a bench that some wonderful person had put on a small natural shelf beside the stairs beneath a large apple tree. “Take a break?”

“Do you even need to ask?” 

They stopped there to rest every day, mostly as a way to avoid Shikamaru’s mother’s long list of chores she always gave them the moment they turned up.

Shikamaru dropped onto the bench with a sigh of relief. It was always hot in Uzushio, the air heavy and humid against his skin. He’d never known anything else, but sometimes his mother would speak fondly of forests covered in snow and the way her breath would mist in the air. 

The original Nara Forests had all been burned down when Konohagakure fell, though. After the village had been plundered and destroyed and Uzushio had broken free from the First Great Siege, a team of ex-Konoha nin had scoured the forests for saplings or seeds that had survived the destruction. They’d brought them back and planted them at the top of Konoha Hill, and later, when he was old enough, Senju Tobito used his Mokuton to grow more. Some of them grew as tall as the Uzushio Tower, now.

And that was where the remaining Nara and Inuzuka had eventually settled with their dogs and deer. So in essence, it was an over-fondness for  _ trees _ that forced Shikamaru to trek up and down those cursed stairs every day. When he was an adult he was getting an apartment on one of the lower terraces. 

“Papa said your plan to fail the exam next week was thwarted.”

Shikamaru slitted open one eye and looked over at Sora. He was slumped back against the bench, shadows moving across his face as the tree branches swayed in the wind. 

“My mom somehow knew what I was going to do. She threatened to apprentice me to a blacksmith if I failed.”

“Ouch,” Sora said.

“It’s a pain. I just want to lead an average life as a paperwork ninja but she’s always going on and on about how I have to honor the clan. Like me following in dad’s footsteps will somehow make up for most of us being -” He cut himself off and shook his head, not willing to finish the sentence. Shikamaru had never lived in a world where the Nara were numerous, but his father and uncle had and they still mourned the loss of their clan.

“Yeah, it’s a lot of pressure. Try being one of the last of  _ two _ dying clans.”

Shikamaru wrinkled his nose. “You should ask Orochimaru to make you a brother.”

“Too bad Uzukage-sama made it illegal for him to grow babies after he gave me to dad and papa as a wedding present.”

Shikamaru nodded. It really was too bad. If Orochimaru could just make his parents some more kids his mom would be too distracted to harp on him. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so guilty over only being able to produce one Nara heir and stop focusing on Shikamaru as the clan’s shining beacon of hope.

Eventually, they forced themselves to stand and finish the climb. If they were too much later his mother’s wrath would fall down upon them in a crashing wave of doom.

“There you are,” Yoshino said when they stepped into the kitchen. “I was starting to wonder if you’d fallen asleep somewhere. Go feed the deer, and then your fathers want you two to meet them at the shrine.”

Shikamaru groaned. “Not more training.”

Yoshino spun on him and pointed a wooden spoon at his face. His eyes crossed trying to focus on it and Sora shuffled away from him and attempted to look unassuming. “You’re going to be a genin soon, which means you need to know more than the basic clan techniques. You’d better work hard and not disappoint your father.”

She spun back around and stirred the stew she was making viciously. Shikamaru and Sora grabbed two water bottles from the fridge before darting out the door and towards the hay shed, unwilling to upset her further. A few deer sauntered out from the trees when they heard the gate open and Shikamaru and Sora tossed flakes of hay over the fence in silence.

Once they’d checked that the deer had enough water they climbed the fence and made their way towards Konoha Forest. On the right the sea spread out before them, the village looking small in comparison to its vastness, the river a snaking silver line that ran along the base of Konoha Hill and her neighboring mountains before veering off through the middle of the village. The forest stretched northeast for six miles, with the Inuzuka settled on the other side.

The west side of the mountain was all forest, as well, though the Hashirama trees melted into smaller leafy trees and thick ferns before dropping off at a sheer rock face. Beyond that, small civilian villages peppered the island, interspersed by large expanses of thick green growth, orchards, and a few main roads that all led around the mountains to Uzushiogakure.

Shikamaru had never been outside of the village himself, but he’d learned about Whirlpool’s infrastructure in class and from conversations he'd overheard between his father and uncle. Most of their food was grown or fished on the main island, though they got major imports for things like rice and cloth from Wave Country. That was also where a lot of their lower-ranked missions came from since Wave didn’t have their own hidden village.

They walked for a few minutes in the comforting shade of the trees before they came upon the shrine. His father and Uncle Ensui were sitting on logs set around the unlit fire pit, smoking cigarettes and talking in low voices. 

“Hey, dad,” Shikamaru said and sat next to him while Sora took the seat next to his own father.

“Hey, kiddo. How was your day?”

Shikamaru shrugged and Shikaku chuckled. “Come on, I want to teach you the Shadow Clutch Technique before you graduate.”

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t used to care whether I knew more than the Shadow Bind Technique before I graduated. You always told mom there was no rush. And you didn’t start teaching me the Shadow Bind Technique until I was ten. Why is Uncle Ensui teaching Sora when he’s only eight?”

“Sora has higher chakra reserves, thanks to his Hatake genes,” Ensui said as he put his cigarette out on the log before throwing it into the fire pit. “Yours didn’t grow big enough to use our clan techniques until you were ten.”

“Hmm,” Shikamaru said. He could have pushed more but it would be a pain, and besides, he already had a few guesses. After all, the Uzukage and her retinue had just returned from the first inter-village chunin exams that Uzushio had participated in since the fall of Konoha.

If they were loosening their isolationist policy then they were also opening themselves for an attack. Paired with how tired his father looked and how often he was away from home, it was obvious that the village was gearing up for something. It was just Shikamaru’s luck to be joining the shinobi ranks right as trouble was brewing. 

He ignored his father’s knowing gaze and concentrated on learning what he was trying to teach him. It was kind of nice to have more of his father’s attention lately, anyway, even if he was forced to put effort into learning new techniques. At least he wasn’t climbing stairs.

A week later he was entering his classroom for the last time, his hitai-ate heavy on his arm and his genin-bead woven into his hair just above his right ear. It was, his father explained, a part of him now. Only he could remove it from his hair - it couldn’t even be cut out. 

While he was a genin it was connected to his jounin-sensei’s chakra, which meant if he was ever in trouble he could push his own chakra into it and his sensei would appear as long as he or she was within range. It was a system created by General Minato, a bastardized version of his Flying Thunder God Technique. 

Only skilled jounin with high chakra reserves could use it. Shikamaru slunk past Uchiha Sasuke, whose bead was woven into one of his side bangs, and up to his usual seat in the back. 

Ino and Sakura arrived the way they always did - loudly and fighting. 

Shikamaru laid his head down on his arms but angled his face so he could watch the door. The next person to enter was a surprise. Uzumaki Naruto had graduated last year and then, for all intents and purposes, disappeared. The rumor was that he’d gone off on a training trip to one of the small islands with Uzumaki Tomoaki, but nobody could confirm it.

If he had been on a training trip, it hadn’t done much to change him. “Uzumaki Naruto is back, believe it!” he yelled and thrust his fists into the air.

Hinata looked ready to faint at his entrance but he bypassed her as usual to torment Sasuke, who still hadn’t forgiven him for graduating early. There was a short scuffle that Ino and Sakura got involved in before Iruka-sensei entered the room with a pile of folders in his arms.

“Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Sakura! Enough! You’re genin now, you can’t be acting like children.”

They broke apart and Ino and Sakura separated into seats that were as close to Sasuke as they could get, though Naruto had already plopped down into the one right next to him. “Eh heh, sorry Iruka-sensei.”

Iruka’s expression softened. “It’s fine, Naruto, I know you’re just excited to see your friends again.”

To the backdrop of Naruto denying that Sasuke was his friend, Uzumaki Karin and Tomomi entered the room. Well, Karin sauntered into the room, red hair pulled back into a bun with her genin bead woven up against her skull much like Shikamaru’s was. 

Tomomi, however, tripped her way inside, attention behind her. “Bye, Uncle Tomoaki, have a good day at work!” she was yelling as she attempted to regain her balance.

The two cousins had been raised together and were more like sisters, since Tomomi’s brother and father had been killed in the Konoha Affair. It was odd to see one without the other. 

Karin rolled her eyes and reached out to steady Tomomi just before her gaze fell on Naruto. She grabbed ahold of Tomomi’s elbow and pulled her towards him, which made her lose her footing again so that she was staggering after her, strawberry blonde hair a stark contrast to her cousin’s bright red.

“Hey, cous,” Karin said when they stopped in front of the desk Naruto and Sasuke were seated at. “Long time no see.”

Tomomi grinned and leaned over the table to hug Naruto. “You’re back! I mean, of course you are, since I know Uncle Tomoaki got back last night, but I’m so happy to see you!”

Naruto patted her on the head. “Ah, good to see you too, Tomomi. Maybe the three of us will be on the same team!”

“I doubt it,” Karin said, mirroring Shikamaru’s own thoughts. “We’ve got a lot of different clan kids in the class this year. They’ll try to mix it up.”

Tomomi and Naruto nodded in tandem, brows furrowed in thought and fingers on their chins as they took that in. “That makes sense, but it’s too bad,” Tomomi said.

“Just as long as I don’t end up on the team with the bastard,” Naruto said cheerfully and pointed his thumb at Sasuke, who scowled at him.

“I’m the one that would suffer from being held back by the _second-_ highest scoring rookie, loser.”

“Hey, second isn’t bad!”

“Yet for some reason you got to graduate early and go on a training trip with  _ Uzumaki Tomoaki _ . Guess mommy pulled some strings for you -”

Karin and Tomomi edged around the desk towards the aisle as Naruto’s face turned red. “Hey, you don’t know what you’re talking about, jerk! It wasn’t like that.”

Iruka stepped in before it could come to blows and Karin and Tomomi sat down in the seats in front of Shikamaru. Karin looked at her nails - painted the same crimson as her hair and eyes, and Tomomi turned in her seat. Her bead was woven into a long strand of hair that fell just in front of her ear and the rest, save the bangs that framed her face, was braided back.

“Hi, Shikamaru,” she said.

He grunted a hello and she grinned. She was always smiling, but it never had the edge that Naruto and Karin’s smiles sometimes did or the flakiness of Ino’s suck-up smiles. It was disturbing that someone could be so honestly cheerful. “Are you excited to find out who your team is?”

He sat up and propped his chin in his hand, resting his elbow on the desk. “I just hope I don’t get anybody too energetic.”

Tomomi looked pointedly around the room, which consisted of three Uzumaki, Ino, and Sakura.

He sighed. “I know. The odds aren’t in my favor.”

The last person who had passed the genin test entered the room, rounding them out at a perfect nine. Hatake Orihito glided into the room as if he owned it, his bright white genin bead easy to spot against long black hair that was the envy of many of the girls in the room. 

He smiled at Sasuke, winking one of his yellow eyes at him before taking a seat. So, that made three members of Sasuke’s creepy fan club that had passed the exams. How embarrassing for their village.

“Attention everyone!” Iruka said and they all quieted down. 

Tomomi turned back to look at the front of the room and even Naruto and Sasuke stopped glaring at each other. “Congratulations on passing your genin exams. I’m very proud of all of you, and I know that you will make your village proud, too. But remember, you’re not in the clear now that you’ve graduated. Your first month as a team is a probationary period and your jounin-sensei can recommend you be sent back to the Academy if you’re unable to work as a team.”

There were a few groans of discontent, but it wasn’t anything that they hadn’t known. It was rare that a team didn’t pass the probationary period, anyway. If someone wasn’t emotionally ready to be a genin it was usually caught by the psych tests they’d all had to take in the last week. If they didn’t know the material or couldn’t keep up physically, they wouldn’t have passed the Academy tests in the first place and been put on the jounin track.

About half of the students from their class had been sent to other divisions for training in things that suited them better after the genin exams. He was surprised that Haruno had made the cut and not been sent to the Medic Division with her abysmal physical scores, but then she was too stubborn to let Ino beat her.

Iruka went on for a bit about all the responsibility that came with their new roles as genin and Shikamaru let himself zone out. He only started paying attention again when the door opened and three people stepped inside. All of them were instantly recognizable. Uchiha Itachi, Uzumaki Tomoaki, and Senju Tsunade. 

Not for the first time in the past few months, he felt suspicion curl in his gut. Three of the most elite, well-known shinobi in the village were being made jounin-sensei for his graduating class and whatever the reason, it was sure to make Shikamaru's life more difficult then he'd like. 

Iruka ignored the excited whispering that the appearance of the Uzukage’s apprentice and the famous heads of the Sealing and Medical Divisions caused. 

“When I call your team, join your jounin sensei and follow them for team introductions. Team Six, led by Uchiha Itachi. Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Tomomi, and Hatake Orihito.” 

All three stood and made their way down towards Itachi, Orihito with the serpentine grace he and his father were so well-known for, Hinata with small, nervous steps, and Tomomi in a tumble of excited energy. A heavy hitter team of some sort if Shikamaru had to guess.

Shikamaru swallowed and eyed the remaining two jounin-sensei.

Tomoaki regarded them with the stern visage he was so well known for (it was just weird seeing an Uzumaki look so grumpy), not even twitching when Tomomi waved cheerfully at him as she followed in Itachi’s calm wake. Shikamaru could already tell he’d be a pain as a sensei.

Senju Tsunade had her hands on her hips and was smirking at them. Shikamaru’s stomach dipped and he swallowed, sweat beading on his back. Neither of these shinobi would put up with any whining. He was doomed.

“Team 7, led by Uzumaki Tomoaki. Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura.”

Shikamaru was too horrified to pay much attention to Team 7’s reactions. Tsunade met his gaze and grinned, and it wasn’t a nice one. No. Oh, no. He looked at what could only be his two teammates. Karin and Ino. He was on a team with three women from clans that were not known for being calm. Why couldn’t one of them at least have been nice, quiet Hinata?

Shikamaru’s head hit the desk as Iruka said, “Team 10, led by Senju Tsunade. Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Karin, and Nara Shikamaru.”

Tsunade clapped her hands together. “Right. Team 10, meet me at the rock gardens by the main port.” She disappeared in a swirl of leaves and Shikamaru groaned.

He wondered if it was too late to become the blacksmith’s apprentice, after all.

Karin and Ino were both whispering excitedly about being put on a team with the Slug Princess, the strongest kunoichi in the village outside of the Uzukage. Though Ino somehow transitioned into complaints that they’d gotten Shikamaru instead of Sasuke as their male member. 

They stood and moved towards the door. Karin snapped her fingers at Ino when she didn’t follow. “Hey, quit whining, and let’s go.” Karin, it seemed, took a bit after her father and his stern, stern ways. She had a temper but she wasn’t as loud as most Uzumaki, he supposed.

Ino stomped down the stairs. “Don’t snap your fingers at me! Do you have any idea how annoying Forehead will be after this?”

Shikamaru sighed and walked ahead of them, hands shoved deep into his pockets. The world was truly against him. 

The sun was high in the sky by the time the three of them came to the entrance of the Memorial Stone Gardens. The rock wall that surrounded it in an oval shape rose high above their heads and Shikamaru squinted at the names carved into it in neat little rows. 

Ino stopped in front of one of the benches that were tucked under cherry trees between the rock sculptures dotted around the area. “It doesn’t look like she’s here yet.”

Shikamaru collapsed on the nearest bench and closed his eyes. She was probably spying on them or something, trying to get a feel for her new team. Well, Shikamaru certainly wasn’t going to give her anything interesting to watch.

They sat in silence for half an hour, Ino still fuming and Karin reading a book she’d unsealed from a scroll, though the throbbing vein at her temple gave away her rising temper. Whether it was with Ino’s attitude, Shikamaru’s laziness, or their sensei’s absence, he had no idea. Probably all three. 

Shikamaru, of course, dozed.

Eventually, Ino stood and walked over to a raised plaque in the middle of the gardens. “Hm. We Honor Our Fallen, Who Gave Their Lives for the Will of Fire. Hey, Shikamaru, do you think that means all these names are...are dead people?”

Karin resealed her book and walked over to the path that followed the curve of the wall. “Probably. I think mom told me about it, once.”

Shikamaru watched as she and Ino slowly walked along the path, mouths moving as they read some of the names. 

“Oh! Look, this section is just for Konoha nin who died during The Fall. There’s so many of them,” Ino said in a low tone. 

“Many died to protect the future of Konoha. That’s the Will of Fire, brats.”

Ino and Karin both screeched and jumped, spinning to stare at where Tsunade had appeared on top of a statue of a wolf. She stood tall, arms crossed under her chest and brown eyes pinning them in place.

“But there  _ was _ no future for Konoha. It’s gone,” Shikamaru said.

Tsunade hummed and stepped off the statue, landing on the path without disturbing even a speck of dust. Shikamaru stood and joined them in front of the wall when she beckoned him over. 

Hundreds of names were carved there. He swallowed when he saw all the names starting with Nara. At the top, four names were etched in larger letters than the others. Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of Konohagakure. Shimura Danzo, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane, Konoha Council. 

Shikamaru had heard the names before in history class. The four of them had made a last stand against the combined might of Kumo and Iwa, buying time for the two hundred refugees to flee to Uzushio. 

“Four people held back a whole army to save the last of their people. Do you know why we wear leaves on our flak jackets?” Tsunade asked.

“Daddy says it’s to honor Konoha, since our villages were so close - sister villages, they called us,” Ino said.

“That’s part of it. It also symbolizes that Konoha lives on within Uzushio. Many of our citizens today are direct descendants of those refugees.” She looked pointedly at Shikamaru and Ino. He knew she was one of the refugees herself along with her teammate, Orochimaru. “The Second Uzukage was so moved by his friend’s sacrifice that he adopted the Will of Fire as a tenant of our own. We are loyal Uzushio shinobi, but we all carry a piece of Konoha within us.”

Ino sniffled. “That’s so sad.”

Tsunade smiled and Shikamaru was surprised by how much it lit up her otherwise serious countenance. “It depends on how you look at it. The village of Konoha is gone, but her ideals live on. Uzushio takes care of its own, and Konoha was family.” 

She put her hands back on her hips and turned away from the wall, pigtails swinging. Shikamaru made sure to avert his eyes from her chest when there was...movement there, too. What a pain. “Now, why don’t we do introductions?”

Shikamaru sighed and followed Tsunade back to a pair of benches that faced a statue of a mermaid. She perched on the end of the mermaid’s tail and crossed her legs. Shikamaru took one bench and the girls took the second.

“Now, let’s introduce ourselves. I’ll start. My name is Senju Tsunade. My hobbies are gambling and creating new medical jutsu. I dislike overly traditional clan heads. My dream for the future is to have the best medical division in the Elemental Nations.”

Shikamaru blinked rapidly at her blunt introduction but managed to pull himself together when she pointed at him. “Nara Shikamaru. Hobbies are cloud watching and shogi. I dislike loud people. My dream for the future is to be an average shinobi with an average life.”

Ino rolled her eyes and Karin glared at him and said, “What, seriously? You better not hold me back!” 

Tsunade sighed and mumbled something about Nara brats before gesturing at Ino.

Ino straightened her back and tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. “I’m Yamanaka Ino. My hobbies are working in our greenhouses and flower arranging. I dislike lazy people. My dream for the future is to be the head of Psych and Interrogation, just like dad, and to marry a certain person.”

Shikamaru looked up into the tree branches above him, wondering for the fifth time that day what he’d done to deserve this.

Karin cleared her throat when Tsunade looked at her. “I’m Uzumaki Karin. My hobbies are developing medical seals with my mom and swimming. I dislike people who look down on medics. My dream for the future is to be a front line medic.”

Tsunade hummed and eyed her. “You’re Tomoaki and Maya’s daughter, right?”

Karin nodded. “That’s right.”

“Your mother’s one of my best medics. You have her chakra?”

Karin shifted uncomfortably but nodded. “Yes. She’s been teaching me. I can already do the Mystic Palm Technique.”

“Hmm. As your jounin-sensei, I’ll be teaching all of you the basics before we start in on specializations but,” she said just as Karin’s expression fell, “I do expect all of you to learn the basics of medical jutsu. No genin on my team will go into a combat situation without knowing them. That would just be embarrassing. We'll talk about specializations later in the year.” 

She removed three small scrolls from her sleeves and tossed one to each of them. “That’s a diagram of the skeleton. I expect all of you to spend the afternoon memorizing it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. Tomorrow we’ll meet at training ground 14 at eight am for assessments.” 

“What?” Shikamaru yelped, but the annoying woman was already gone. 

“But training ground fourteen is clear on the other side of the village! And I was going to go shopping,” Ino wailed. 

“That’s so early, and so...many...stairs,” Shikamaru whispered, frozen in horror. His plans for the evening were ruined. Weren’t there something like two hundred bones in the body? That would take Shikamaru at least an hour to memorize.

He stumbled out of the rock garden in a haze of horror. He didn’t really remember the walk home, but when he got there his father took one look at his expression and hustled him onto the porch. His mother started to say something about chores, but a whispered conversation had her backing off.

They were four moves into a game of Shogi before Shikamaru found his voice. “Three kunoichis. My team is...three kunoichis. Three  _ troublesome _ kunoichis.” 

He held up the scroll that had somehow made it all the way to the porch with him. “I have to memorize this! Tonight! Tomorrow I have to be at training ground 14 by eight am. This is abuse! I’m only thirteen!”

He looked at his dad expectantly at the end of his rant. Instead of sympathy, his father was fighting a smile. 

Shikamaru clenched his fists and stood. To his horror his eyes were stinging. “Right, you just think this is funny. I’m going to my room to memorize this scroll so that I don’t get kicked down a mountain by one of the Sannin tomorrow.”

A large hand wrapped around his wrist as he attempted to stomp past his father. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry. Sit down, I want to talk to you.”

Shikamaru thought about making more of a scene, but the fight had already gone out of him and now he was just tired. He sighed and went back to his cushion, relieved that his eyes were dry again.

“Did I ever tell you about my original genin team?” Shikaku asked after making his next move.

Shikamaru glanced up at him. “Yeah, it was you, Uncle Inoichi, and Uncle Ikuo, right?”

Shikaku shook his head. “Not originally, no. I was a genin of Konohagakure before I was granted citizenship here. So was Inoichi.”

Shikamaru leaned back, stunned. He had assumed his father was still an academy student when Konoha fell. 

Shikaku shrugged. “It was a different time. We were at war, and needed soldiers as quickly as possible. I was put on a team with Inoichi and a boy named Akimichi Chouza when I was nine. The Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka were allied clans long before the creation of Konoha, and it wasn’t unusual for us to be put on teams together.”

Shikamaru knew where this story was going. He’d learned about the Akimichi from clan history lessons with his uncle. They were one of the clans that were wiped out along with Konoha.

“When we fled Konoha with the rest of the refugees, Chouza wasn’t with us. His clan lands were near one of the original breaches in the wall. They were slaughtered. Our sensei didn’t make it, either.”

Shikaku sighed and looked up at Shikamaru, his eyes full of an old, tired pain. “I’m not telling you this to make you work harder. How much effort you put into being a shinobi is up to you. But I do want you to understand how easily teammates can fall. Even if you think they’re annoying, you need to do your best to look out for them.”

Shikamaru looked down at the scroll in his hand and sighed. “Is it too late to apprentice to the blacksmith?”

The next morning came too early for Shikamaru. He had memorized the scroll in forty-five minutes after his mother had shown him a few memorization tricks she’d learned in the Sealing Division when she’d been a chunin. Still, it had been forty-five minutes he'd planned to spend on sleeping.

Ino, by the looks of it, had been up most of the night trying to learn all the information. Even though her hair and clothes were as perfectly put together as always, there were deep bags under eyes. Not for the first time, Shikamaru was grateful for his intelligence, even if it was overwhelming most of the time.

They walked in grumpy silence most of the way down the stairs before veering left on a little-used, overgrown path that would cut across to the mountain-hill that training ground 14 was located on. The rest of the village was starting to stir, movement coming from the houses tucked up against the hill on terraces interspersed with birdsong.

“It’s pretty,” Ino mumbled and gestured at the view of the city and ocean stretching out beyond. 

Shikamaru rubbed at his dry eyes and nodded. “Yeah.” 

They walked in silence for a few more minutes before Shikamaru surprised himself by breaking it. “Did your dad tell you that he and my dad were on a genin team before they came to Uzushio?”

Ino’s brow furrowed. “No. I thought they were only ten.”

Shikamaru kicked at the dried-out remains of a crab shell that a seagull had left behind after picking all the meat out. “He said that since the Second Shinobi War was going on, they graduated a bunch of kids really young.”

“That’s awful. I’m so glad we live in Uzushio where the wars can’t get to us.”

Shikamaru thought about the two teams that had attended the Suna chunin exams, and how the jounin-sensei of his year were from the top ten elite of the village. “Yeah,” he said half-heartedly. “Me, too.”

They both stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Their meeting point wasn’t quite at the tallest peak of the mountain range, but it was the second tallest. The first tallest was where the Storm Catcher seal array was set up and was off-limits to everyone that wasn’t the Uzukage and her closest advisors.

“Hey, guys!” They turned towards the voice that came from a footbridge at the base of the hill. Shikamaru could make out the bright red of Karin’s hair and the glint of her glasses. “Wait up!”

“Great, it’s the suck-up,” Ino muttered and crossed her arms over her chest.

Shikamaru looked over at her, surprised. “Karin? I don’t know, I’ve never known her to suck up.”

“Please, she was all, ‘oh, I’m going to be a front line medic-nin!’ Like it’s easy. Only the best of the best get to be front line medics. You have to be really strong. She only said it because Tsunade was there.”

Shikamaru sighed and was going to let it be - what business of his was it whether or not his teammates liked each other - but then he remembered what his father said. “I don’t know. She’s always said she wants to be a front line medic. She beat that kid up for telling her she should be like her dad because Sealing Masters were more useful than medics, remember?”

Ino put her nose in the air but didn’t reply since Karin had caught up to them. “Hey,” she said, looking fresh and not at all like she’d been up studying all night like Ino.

“Oh look, all my genin together at the bottom of the stairs.” 

They all twitched and Karin pointed at her. “How are you doing that! I’m a sensor, people can never sneak up on me!”

“You’re a sensor?” Ino cut in before Tsunade could answer. “Me, too! I get it from my dad.”

“I got it from my mom,” Karin said almost shyly. “Runs in her branch of the family.”

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at them when they grinned at each other. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? One thing in common and they’re friends. He would never understand women.

“The answer to your question,” Tsunade said wryly, “is that I am able to suppress my chakra to the point that even the most sensitive of sensors can’t detect me. It’s not something most shinobi can pull off, but you should still take it as a lesson not to rely on that skill too heavily. Now. I think we’ll run up these stairs.”

Shikamaru staggered away from her. “What?”

Tsunade’s grin was sharp and his stomach dropped. “Without using chakra enhancements. You have ten minutes to make it to the top, or I’ll make you do it again and add some...incentive.”

All three of them stared at her and her eyes narrowed. Shikamaru yelped when a senbon buried itself into the ground an inch from his foot. “Your time started thirty seconds ago. The next one won’t miss.”

They made it to the top with a whole two seconds to spare. Ino and Shikamaru collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath and sweating heavily. Shikamaru’s lungs were burning and he hated everything. Karin only looked slightly winded and Shikamaru now understood why his father routinely cursed Uzumaki stamina. It just wasn’t fair.

“Yamanaka,” Tsunade barked and Ino twitched. “Which long bone makes up the upper part of the arm?”

“Um. The - the radius?”

“Wrong - that’ll be fifteen pushups for all of you.” Ino and Shikamaru groaned, but a few well-placed senbon an inch from their noses had them rolling over onto their stomachs and pushing themselves up on shaky arms.

“Uzumaki - do you know?” 

“It’s the humerus, Tsunade-sensei.” Karin didn’t even falter in her push-ups.

“Very good.” 

Shikamaru winced at the venomous glare Ino sent Karin’s way. It seemed they were back to square one. Not that he could blame her for being a little put out. 

“Nara! What is the name of the jaw bone?”

“Ugh. The mandible.”

This continued for a few long minutes, with Ino answering the rest of her questions correctly. Tsunade unsealed water bottles and tossed them to each of them. “I expect you to stay hydrated while we train,” she said brusquely. “We’re going to go over everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, and then we’re going to spar. After that, we’ll pick up a D-rank. I’m giving up a lot of my free time to train you brats, so if I feel you aren’t putting forth the right amount of effort...”

She trailed off and held up a senbon, which glinted ominously in the sun. 

By the end of the day, Shikamaru had pulled three senbon from various painful places and was given three scrolls to memorize by the end of the week.

It was hands down the worst day of his life.

000

Itachi studied the three genin he was expected to train, for once in his life unsure of how to proceed. 

To say he’d been taken off-guard by the assignment would be an understatement. He’d barely washed the sand from his hair from his trip  to Suna before Kushina called him to her office to drop this little exploding tag on his head.

Perhaps if he hadn’t been so exhausted he would have reacted better initially. 

The Suna exams had been a quagmire of pointed questions and angry, scheming Kage. Itachi’s shoulders had what felt like permanent knots in them from how tense it had been. He’d sworn to himself to get assigned to security detail when Uzushio hosted the exams. Sure, he’d probably have to kill some people, but at least he could avoid A’s purple face and Terumi Mei’s sharp glares whenever Utakata or Momochi were in her line of sight. Death by lava was not the way he wanted to go out.

So when Kushina had handed him a file with a beaming smile and said, “Congratulations, you’re a jounin-sensei!” he didn’t think anybody could blame him for his reaction.   
  


“You can’t be serious.”

Kushina’s face had fallen and Tsunade, holding her own file, had snorted. “I’m with the kid. Neither of us has time to take on a bunch of genin. Don’t you have someone younger,” Tsunade glanced over at him, “and someone older to take over this? The only person that got this assignment that makes sense is Tomoaki." Tomoaki huffed but didn't argue with her. "Make your twerpy husband take a team, he loves teaching the little monsters.”

Itachi had held himself very still when Kushina’s eye began to twitch and her hair started to float. He wasn’t the only one whose patience had been worn down by the last year. 

“Listen up! In one year, we will host the chunin exams, and I need to make it very clear that Uzushio is not to be messed with, ya know,” Kushina said, slapping her hand on the desk. “Tsunade, you are still feared internationally as one of the three Sannin that drove back the Kumo and Iwa forces in the First Siege and fought Hanzo to a stall in the Second. Itachi already has a flee on sight order and is my successor, and Tomoaki is still famous from the time he saved the Wave Daimyo from the Kuraki brothers single-handedly. Minato is hated by Kumo due to the event that ended the Konoha Affair, and his genin would be too tempting a target. You  _ will _ take on these teams, and you  _ will _ have them ready to put on a good show in a year’s time.”

And so here Itachi was, being stared up at by three thirteen-year-olds who would be depending on him to keep them alive for the next year or two and ready them for the life of a shinobi, possibly even for war. 

He cleared his throat before the silence could get any more awkward than it already was. Itachi was one of the most feared shinobi in the world. He could handle a couple of baby ninja. Probably.

“I am Uchiha Itachi. I specialize in ninjutsu and genjutsu and my plans for the future are to assist Kushina-shishou in leading Uzushio into an era of peace and prosperity. My hobbies are baking and spending time with my siblings.”

He looked expectantly at Hatake Orihito. He had been tied for top spot with Sasuke in his class, something Itachi was sure his brother was unaware of. His file listed Orochimaru and Hatake Sakumo as his parents. 

There had been a lot of debate about who his mother was when he first appeared, as Orochimaru had just started walking around the village with a toddler-version of himself one day. Even Sakumo had been surprised by the child’s sudden appearance. It had been hot gossip for months.

Then a few years later Orochimaru had handed Sakumo’s son, Kakashi, a baby cloned from his and Ensui’s DNA the day after they returned from their honeymoon. Only Orochimaru could think an unasked for child created with stolen DNA made a proper wedding present. It was one of the few times anybody had ever seen Shikaku lose his temper. From all accounts, it had been terrifying. 

Orihito stood from the low wall he was sitting on, tucking his hands into the loose sleeves of his grey kimono shirt and bowing. “I am Hatake Orihito. Father has been training me in his specialized form of taijutsu and kenjutsu and says I am quite talented. My plans for the future are to one day take over the Science Division and to become the best swordsman in the village.”

Itachi nodded his head at Orihito and he sat back down just as primly as he’d stood. Only the fluttering of his pulse at his throat gave away his nerves.

Itachi turned to the next genin. Hyuuga Hinata was the heir to a clan of seven. Much like the Uchiha and Nara, the Hyuuga had been almost completely wiped out. All that escaped the slaughter were Hizashi, Hiashi, and the girls they’d been betrothed to since they were toddlers. Hiashi and his wife had two girls before she passed, Hinata and her younger sister, Hanabi. Hizashi had two sons with his wife, one of which was considered a prodigy and had been a genin for a year already.

Unlike Orihito, Hinata was visibly nervous as she stood. She poked her fingers together and her cheeks turned a deep shade of red. “H-hello. I’m Hyuuga Hinata. I’ve been learning the Hyuuga clan’s Gentle Fist technique since I was very young. I also can use my Byakugan to see 360 degrees and through physical barriers. I want to - to be a strong leader and restore my clan.”

She sat down hard and hunched over her legs, a faint tremor running through her. Itachi noted that he’d need to speak with the psych department about her stutter, though it may fade on its own with time along with her intense shyness.

“Your Byakugan can see through walls, hm?” Orihito asked innocently with a small, sly smile. “Does that mean you can see through people’s clothes, Hina-chan?”

It took a few minutes to rouse Hinata from her fainting spell and assure her he was not upset with her while Tomomi yelled at Orihito over their heads.

“You know how shy she is, you jerk!” 

Orihito looked down at his nails, painted the same shade of purple that lined his eyes. “I’m doing her a favor, she needs to toughen up.”

Tomomi scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s probably what her jerk of a dad thinks, too, but look how well that worked out.”

Itachi took a moment to appreciate that Tomomi was at least somewhat observant if she had picked up on her classmate’s homelife. Then Hinata sat up and Itachi smiled and put a hand on her back to support her.

“Better?” he asked.

“Her father lacks imagination,” Orihito said in a bored tone, mind obviously elsewhere already.

“Your face lacks imagination,” Tomomi grumbled and Itachi’s opinion of her intelligence dropped a few points. 

Hinata stuttered out another apology and Itachi was grateful for all the practice his younger siblings had given him with crying children when her eyes filled with tears. 

He put his hand on her head and quirked his lips up in a small smile. “It’s fine, Hinata. Do you feel well enough to continue?”

She nodded and he settled her back in, this time with Tomomi sitting between her and Orihito. His gaze settled on the last and most surprising genin on his team.

Tomoaki would not be happy when he realized his niece had been placed with Itachi and not Tsunade. Kushina-shishou understood that Itachi would not judge Tomomi for the actions of her parents and brother, but Tomoaki did not know Itachi as well as Kushina did.

At least Tomomi didn’t know the truth of the situation between their families. It would probably make her a lot less excited to be on his team.

“I’m Uzumaki Tomomi. My hobbies are sewing and volunteering at the Inuzuka animal shelter. My professional goal is to be an awesome sabotage specialist like my mom and brother were and to be a reservist in the Sealing Division.”

She beamed up at Itachi, dark blue eyes tugging at the memory of the worst night of his life when an identical pair had stared down at him with seething hatred. He shrugged it off and nodded at her.

Orihito looked over at her, a smile growing across his face. “Your professional goals, hm? What are your personal ones - a side business as a seamstress?”

Orihito rolled his eyes and Tomomi’s cheeks and eyes both darkened in a way that anybody who hung around an Uzumaki for extended periods of time would recognize. 

“Uncle Tomoaki says that shinobi should have non-combat hobbies for mental health! Sewing is fun and creative.”

“For civilian women maybe,” Orihito said with a flick of his fingers.

Tomomi’s incoherent cry of rage startled Hinata so badly she fell backward off the log and into the small creek behind them. Itachi was too busy plucking Tomomi from the air mid lunge to save her from her soggy fate.

Orihito did not seem to realize how close he had been to receiving an Uzumaki beat down. He was much too smug. One day, probably very soon, he would understand why people scattered when an angry Uzumaki came into view. 

He helped a spluttering Hinata to her feet for the second time that day while the other hand held Tomomi off the ground by the back of her dark blue vest while she kicked at Orihito, hissing and spitting like a cat.

Itachi was never going to forgive Kushina-shishou for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't convince myself to separate Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura, so they still get to be Team 7, just under a different sensei. I almost kept Kakashi, but then realized that the best Seal Master in the village would probably be the person chosen as the sensei for the new jinchuuriki. So, here we are.
> 
> Also, Shikamaru acting like a dramatic teenager over exercise and work made me happy. Poor Shikaku.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi, Tomoaki, and Tsunade have an impromptu emergency meeting in an unlikely location. Oh, and Genin teams are the worst.

Things with Itachi’s team did not improve in the following days. Orihito’s sharp tongue vacillated between pushing Hinata into a quivering mess of tears and Tomomi into a quivering mess of rage. 

Itachi stepped in whenever it looked like things would escalate to a point where somebody’s clan head would hunt him down for allowing their children to get permanently damaged, but for the most part tried to let them sort it out amongst themselves. They were a team for a reason and had to find their equilibrium before the year was up. He doubted they would survive the chunin exams if they didn’t. 

At the very least, Kiri’s genin teams would be out for their blood after their village’s humiliation at the Suna exams. Kumo, Kiri and Iwa still held a grudge from their armies’ decimation during the First and Second Sieges and the Konoha Affair. Ame, at least, was under new leadership that had close ties to Jiraiya and would probably not hold their own crushing defeat against Uzushio.

“Aren’t you warm in that huge coat, Hina-chan?” Orihito asked, landing lightly on the branch next to her. They were practicing travel by tree and cliff running that day. All three of them, like any child of Uzushio with an ounce of chakra, were proficient at running across water. Hopping from foothold to foothold on land required a type of stop-and-go chakra application that was very different to the flowing, precise current needed for water walking.

“N-no, I’m okay, Orihito-kun. The material is lined with seals that help regulate my temperature.”

“Oh? Well, maybe you should give Tomi the name of your tailor. Then she might discover she doesn’t have to dress like a vaga - _oomph.”_

Itachi closed his eyes in exasperation when Tomomi tackled Orihito off the low branch and they fell to the ground below, kicking and biting at each other like wild animals. He took a moment to snatch Hinata out of the air, as she’d startled so badly at Tomomi’s unexpected entrance she’d tumbled off the branch. 

He set her down just in time to hear Tomomi say, “We’ll see how smug you are without that _beautiful hair_ you’re so proud of!”

There was a smack and yelp and Itachi turned slowly, dread building when he heard a wail of despair. Sure enough, Tomomi was straddling Orihito, expression triumphant despite her disheveled appearance. Her hair had dirt and twigs mashed into it, and the long sleeve of her cropped vest was torn in places.

Orihito was scrabbling at his now-bald head, screaming incoherently. Itachi noted with a sort of distant horror that even his eyebrows were gone, though the strand of hair his genin bead was weaved into remained. 

A small seal drawn on a piece of chakra paper was stuck to his cheek. For a moment, Itachi had hope that it was the type of seal that released its effects when removed, but then Orihito scrambled at it and peeled it away from his skin. He was still bald.

Tomomi threw her head back and cackled. Orihito looked up at her with features twisted in rage. He opened his mouth and a long purple tongue shot out and wrapped around her throat, lifting her off of him and slamming her against a tree a few feet away.

All signs of laughter were gone while she clawed at the tongue and attempted to loosen its hold on her. Itachi flickered to her side and noted with a small tendril of relief that it wasn’t squeezing tight enough to permanently damage her. 

At least Orihito wasn’t homicidal. Just very, very angry. Without his hair he seemed even more serpentine than usual. He was crouched on the balls of his feet, mouth open and eyes narrowed on Tomomi.

“Orihito, let her go,” Itachi said sternly. “Or I’ll -”

Tomomi let out a cry and her whole body flooded with chakra, outlining her in blue. Itachi’s eyes widened as her hair started to float. He knew what that generally precluded and barely managed to dodge when two chakra chains emerged from her stomach.

One went straight to Orihito and twisted around him. He squeaked when it tightened and lifted him off the ground. The second whipped around, obviously not in Tomomi’s control, which meant this was a spontaneous reaction to her fear and probably the first time she’d ever manifested them. 

Itachi twisted out of the way of the chain, then leaped over it when it came swinging back. Unfortunately, Hinata didn’t have his reflexes. She cried out in pain when it smacked into her shoulder with an ominous crack and sent her skidding across the dirt.

The sound, at least, startled Tomomi and Orihito into letting each other go. Both of them dropped to the ground and there was a long, stunned silence after they both landed, sprawling, in the dirt. 

Itachi ran to Hinata’s side. Her white eyes were full of tears and she was grasping at her injured shoulder.

He knelt down and reached out to help her up as gently as he could. To her credit, she only whimpered when he removed her hand so he could prod at her shoulder. Both of his other students crept closer.

“It’s dislocated. Looks like we’ll all be going to the hospital,” he said in a short, clipped tone.

“I - I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Tomomi’s voice was wet but Itachi couldn’t muster anything for her but disappointment.

“You didn’t mean to attack Orihito with a seal you just happened to have premade?” he asked calmly as he helped Hinata to her feet. 

Tomomi flinched and Itachi turned his gaze to Orihito, adopting the same expression he’d used to keep men twice his age in line when they decided they didn’t want to listen to a fifteen-year-old captain. “What about you, Orihito? Did you mean to harass your teammates until one snapped and attacked you? Was using a move on your comrade that we both know your father created for use against enemies ‘just an accident?’”

Orihito looked to the side mulishly but Itachi could see he was uneasy in the way his eyes flickered to the bruises to Tomomi’s throat and Hinata’s hunched form. 

Itachi lifted Hinata gently into his arms and shook his head. “We’ll discuss your punishments later. Right now you all need a medic.”

They trooped into the hospital twenty minutes later. The nurse at the desk did a double take and Itachi had to admit they made quite the procession. An angry Uchiha cradling the heir of the Hyuuga, Orihito with his missing hair and eyebrows, Tomomi rumpled and bruised, and all three children covered in moss, leaves, dirt and tears. Orihito had started sobbing over his hair ten minutes into the walk.

“My genin need medical assistance,” he said, the first words he’d spoken since they started walking, and Tomomi flinched. Orihito’s cheek twitched and he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the wall, sniffling.

“Were you attacked?” the nurse asked tentatively.

“No,” Itachi said. “Training accident.”

“I...see.” She motioned for a couple of nurses to come over. Itachi set Hinata gently on her feet.

“Th-thank you, Itachi-sensei,” she said, eyes on the white tile of the floor, dejection in every line of her body. “I’m sorry to be such a burden.”

Tomomi made a jerky motion towards her, hand lifted, before changing her mind and dropping it back to her side. 

Itachi sighed and crouched down so that Hinata was forced to look at him. He let his lips turn up into a smile, tucking away his anger at his other two students. Hinata would not respond well to harshness, that much was clear after just a few hours together. “You are not a burden, Hinata-chan. You’re my precious student, it is my honor to care for you.” He set a hand on her head, then stood.

He nodded to one of the nurses. “Please take care of them.”

His students trailed after the nurse with varying expressions of angst. The woman at the desk handed him a pile of paperwork which he took with a soft thank you. 

“You can take it to the waiting room to fill out. There should be plenty of seats since it’s a quiet day.” Her smile was sympathetic.

He wondered if he wasn’t hiding his feelings as well as he usually did and smoothed his expression. Failure was not something Itachi was used to, but there was no doubt he hadn’t handled the situation with his genin well. 

He probably should have stepped in sooner. None of the other sensei seemed to be having trouble with their teams. Of course, they were experienced shinobi, while he was barely eighteen and had only been a jounin for three years. Sometimes being hailed as a genius was more pain than it was worth.

To his surprise, there was a familiar face in the waiting room filling out her own pile of paperwork and muttering furiously.

“Tsunade?”

Her head jerked up when he spoke and she froze, her eyes darting around the room as if looking for escape. Her messy hair and harrassed expression almost made Itachi falter, but he managed to keep his posture relaxed. 

He walked slowly towards her and settled into a chair a few feet from her own. “Are you on shift at the hospital today?”

Her lips pursed and she looked down at her paperwork, then over at his own. “No.”

He nodded and ran his fingers along the top page of his own stack, deciding it would be a bad idea to push her for answers. Itachi certainly didn’t want to reveal how he’d ended up there, either.

He’d made his way through Orihito’s stack, having checked the box for _Sealing Accident_ under ‘Reason for Visit.’ Hinata would be under _Uncontrolled Bloodline Activation_ , and perhaps Tomomi’s could simply fall under _Training Accident?_

“What are the odds that Shikaku, Tomoaki, and Inoichi could take me out if they banded together?” Itachi looked up at Tsunade’s words. She was slumped over in her chair, elbow on the armrest and cheek resting on her fist.

Itachi considered her question. “It depends on whether Ensui-taicho offers his assistance. If it makes you feel better, Tomoaki’s attention may be divided between two homicidal urges.”

She glanced over at him and his lips turned up into a humorless smile as he gestured at his paperwork. “His niece is one of my genin.”

Tsunade sighed explosively and straightened, eyes flashing dangerously. “They’re awful! Bratty, immature little monsters! I was just trying to motivate that stupid Nara, how was I supposed to know the Yamanaka would lose her wits over a little snake or three?”

“A snake?”

Tsunade huffed and crossed her arms under her chest. “I may have borrowed a few of Orochimaru’s summons to... _encourage_ Shikamaru to run faster on the stairs. Ino saw them and passed out. The other two were too distracted by one of the snakes biting Shikamaru to notice, so when she fell they all got tangled and...” she trailed off and dropped her head into her hands with a groan. “Stupid Orochimaru! I didn’t know the stupid things would bite the moment the kid gave them lip!”

Itachi stared at her. “Shikaku is going to kill you.”

“It wasn’t _that_ poisonous! I already dealt with their broken bones. I only brought them here because otherwise -”

“You would have been accused of negligence.” Itachi studied her downtrodden expression and set his own paperwork aside. He knew how she felt. Training genin was not as cut and dried as he had first believed. Perhaps they could put their minds together. “Tell me, when you were on a genin team with Orochimaru, was he...” Itachi trailed off, unsure how to ask his question diplomatically.

“A sarcastic, judgemental little shit who didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut?” Tsunade snorted at Itachi’s grimace. “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, there, considering.”

Itachi inclined his head. “Hinata refuses to defend herself and Tomomi lets him goad her.”

Tsunade huffed. “The two girls on my team vacillate between ganging up on Shikamaru and unhealthy competition. Shikamaru has to be forced into anything resembling work. I’ve had to make myself out to be some kind of demon to get him to try at all. 

“By the end of the day I’ll have them working together at least a little, but it’s like they hit the reset button at night when they go home and we have to start all over again. I admit the snakes may have been an overreaction.” She said the last part grudgingly, like she didn’t really believe her own words.

Itachi leaned back in his chair and picked his paperwork back up. “Any smidgen of confidence I pull from Hinata is ripped down by her father every night. I’m sure Orihito’s father isn’t helping with my attempts to soften some of his edges, and Tomomi is...scatterbrained.”

They both fell into glum silence until a ruckus outside the door caught their attention. They glanced at each other and then stood, still uncompleted paperwork in their hands. When they got to the intake desk they both froze. Tomoaki stood in front of it, expression thunderous, hair bristling around him. Behind him were his three genin, which was where the commotion was coming from.

They were tied together back to back, facing out, by a long stretch of rope wrapped around them from chests to hips. All three were dirty, bruised, and covered in welts.

“This is your fault, you bastard! If you hadn’t pushed us into that wasp’s nest -”

“Shut up, Naruto! If you hadn’t been taunting Sasuke-kun -”

“If you and Sakura would have just _shut up_ so we could find that stupid rabbit I wouldn’t have -”

“Enough!” Tomoaki thundered.

“Bastard,” Naruto mumbled once more at Sasuke before all of them went silent.

Tomoaki took a deep breath and turned back to the intake nurse. “They’ve all been stung multiple times by Mountain Wasps.”

He then turned on his heel to stalk away, showing no surprise at seeing Itachi and Tsunade standing in the entrance to the waiting room. His red hair was wilder than usual, the gold highlights dulled. Like many in the village who were seal masters or studying to be one, he wore a cropped top, exposing the swirls and geometric shapes that curled around his stomach and rib cage. Itachi assumed Tomomi’s outfit was heavily inspired by Tomoaki’s, though she had yet to ink any seals into her skin.

A blue long-sleeved kimono-style shirt, held in place with a red belt, covered one half of him loosely. More seals were tattooed on his one exposed arm, and Itachi was sure the covered limb held some of Tomaki’s more esoteric and powerful seals. 

Tomoaki narrowed eyes the same dark blue as his niece’s (the same color of blue his nephew once had) and glided past them, footsteps light for such a large man. Itachi and Tsunade exchanged a look before following.

They sat down and the three of them stared at each other before Tomoaki huffed. “Why are you here? Are my children well?”

Tsunade shrugged, looking for all the world like one of the most intimidating Uzumaki in the village wasn’t staring her down. “Training accident. She was a little banged up but I already healed her. Just here to get the paperwork stating she’s received care signed off.”

“Training accident? It’s the first week,” he said, eyes narrowed.

Tsunade gave his own paperwork a meaningful glance and he sighed. “Yes, well.” He looked over at Itachi and his lips pressed together. “And Tomomi?”

“She got into an...argument with Orihito and activated her chakra chains. Everyone’s fine, but they weren’t in her control.”

Tomoaki’s eyes widened imperceptibly and he straightened. “Truly? I’ll have to see if Kushina will take some time to teach her control.”

Itachi’s master was the only other person in the village alive that had activated the Uzumaki bloodline limit. It was rare and only women of the Uzumaki clan had the potential. The last person to have it before Kushina was Uzumaki Mito.

“I had planned to speak to her about it,” Itachi said stiffly.

Tomoaki’s shoulders tensed before he let out a breath and relaxed. “Of course. What were she and Orihito arguing about?”

Itachi kept his face a blank mask even as irritation moved through him. “I think the better question is, what _don’t_ they argue about.”

Tomoaki’s face twisted into a frown. “I have the same issue with two of my students.”

Itachi hummed and tapped his fingers against his clipboard. Kushina had told Itachi privately that Tomoaki’s team was the least likely to make it through the probationary period. He had a young jinchuuriki, a girl more interested in boys than becoming a strong kunoichi for her village, and Sasuke, who Itachi could admit had a bit of an inferiority complex that made him lash out. Not that Itachi’s team was shaping up to be any better. Or Tsunade’s, by the looks of it.

Kushina would kill them if they couldn’t get their teams whipped into shape in the next few weeks. They had to prove they could work together on at least a fundamental level to pass the probationary period, but that was easier said than done. 

From the expressions on his comrade’s faces, they were thinking along similar lines. None of them were used to failure but they were all currently staring it in the face.

“You know, Orochimaru, Jiraiya and I didn’t start gelling as a team until we’d faced down some serious shit together,” Tsunade said. “Maybe they just need time.”

Tomoaki checked a box with enough viciousness that Itachi was surprised the paper didn’t tear in half. “Time is the thing we have the least of. In three weeks we have to turn in evaluations and as they are now not even Kushina would agree to keep them in rotation.”

Tsunade grimaced. All of them were, one way or another, personally invested in the children of this graduating class. “Too bad we can’t take them on a trip out of the village. Ino would benefit the most, I think - her dad spoils her.”

“Kushina-shishou won’t let us take them on missions outside the village for at least three months,” Itachi said. “Hinata could certainly use the time away from her father, as well.”

Tomoaki shook his head. “They’d all do well to be in a situation where they only had each other to depend on, but it’s not possible.”

Tsunade tapped her bottom lip with an ink stained finger, thoughtful in a way that had never boded well for the people around her. “That’s not completely true. In fact, you just recently got back from a long trip with a brand new genin.”

Tomoaki’s lips tightened. “That was different.”

“And this isn’t?” she challenged and Tomoaki sighed.

Itachi thought about what Tsunade was hinting at. It could work. 

“I cannot leave the village for longer than a few days at a time right now,” Tomoaki said reluctantly. “I just got back and I have a project I must complete soon.”

He most likely meant the updated security seals that would need to be integrated into the matrix before the exams. Itachi’s hands had a permanent cramp in them from assisting the Sealing Teams as they created hundreds of passes for the new barrier. Tomoaki had the unenviable task of working them all into the array.

Tsunade sighed. “Yeah, I can’t leave the hospital for weeks at a time, either. Not with all the projects we have going.”

They shared a moment of silence. The gargantuan amount of work to be done in the next twelve months was hanging over all their heads, heavy and ominous with the catastrophe that was sure to come if they made even a small error. 

Already, the influx had started. Kushina was receiving invitations to parley with smaller villages, two of which were small settlements of shinobi in what was left of Fire Country. Itachi wondered if any of them were Konoha clans or citizens that hadn’t been part of the initial group of refugees.

It was possible. Many of the Village’s forces hadn’t been inside the walls at the time of its fall, considering the war they were in the middle of. Of course, most of them had been hunted down by Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa, but there were sure to be some survivors who had probably become a mix of missing and unaffiliated nin.

Kusa, Taki, and Ame had all reached out in the past week, as well. So far they’d heard nothing from the Four Great Nations. Suna technically didn’t have a sour relationship with Uzushiogakure, but they probably wouldn’t make a political move one way or another until they scoped out the situation at the exams. Itachi didn’t blame them. If the other Great Nations decided to move against Uzushio they had already proved they had no compunction about wiping whole allied villages off the map, even if they had paid dearly for it time and again.

“We could switch off.”

Itachi pulled himself from his internal musings on all the work he and Kushina had looming on the horizon to focus on Tsunade. She smiled, which was not a reassuring expression. “We take all three of our teams to one of the auxiliary islands that were left to grow wild after the First Siege. Then we can do shifts. Two of us stay, one of us gets three full days to work while the other two watch over the brats.”

“I doubt their various guardians would approve of that. Most of them are targets in one way or another and they’d expect us to have at least one jounin to three genin for protection,” Itachi said.

“Then we hire someone to help out. It’s not like we don’t all have the money.”

Tomoaki huffed. “I can’t think of any jounin who would willingly take on what amounts to boring grunt work and I highly doubt the Uzukage would make it a mandatory assignment.”

Tsunade chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve got someone who owes me a favor. So what do you think? Six days of babysitting and three of working? It’ll be tough, but I don’t know how else we can get our teams to improve their performance in time.”

“Six days is still a long time for me to be away right now,” Tomoaki said, crossing his arms over his chest with a faint frown.

Itachi looked between them. It was probably a long time for Tsunade to be unavailable at the hospital, too. “I can stay the full three weeks,” Itachi said.

They looked over at him with raised brows and he shrugged. “It is true Kushina-shishou has many projects I have been assisting in, but unlike you I’m not the head of any department. If she truly needed my undivided attention, she wouldn’t have given me a team of genin to train.” 

He said the last line calmly, without a hint of the pettiness he was feeling. Still, Tsunade laughed outright. “Passive aggressive little thing, aren’t you? Well, I won’t argue with you. What do you think, Tomoaki?”

He glanced between them, then shrugged. “It’s probably our best chance. I want to go to the island first and make sure none of the threats are something they can’t handle.”

“We should all go. That way we can set up some...surprises for them.” Tsunade’s eyes glinted and a twinge of wariness made itself known in Itachi’s chest.

“As long as none of them involve snakes,” he said.

“Snakes?” Tomoaki asked and Itachi ignored Tsunade’s glare. Tomoaki would find out what happened to his only child under her tender care eventually.

“There are probably wild snakes on the islands. Big ones, with all the ambient chakra floating around,” Tsunade said breezily. “Along with gigantic insects, wily predators, and natural pitfalls.” She rubbed her hands together and Itachi’s stomach dropped. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea, after all. He didn’t want to traumatize the genin. Well, not much anyway.

Tomoaki just shook his head, but his lips quirked up into a small smile. Even the weirdly serious Uzumaki were insane, it seemed.

Twenty minutes later, they’d turned in their paperwork and were discussing the details of their plan in hushed whispers when the dulcet tones of their genin interrupted their scheming.

“Back off, Ino-pig! Sasuke doesn’t even like you!”

“Hm, it seems Sasuke doesn’t appreciate the attention of either of you. Perhaps he prefers actually attractive people,” Orihito said.

“Shut up, snake face,” Ino snapped. “You weren’t so attractive an hour ago when you had no hair, were you?”

“Hey, don’t talk to my teammate that way!”

Tomoaki sighed deeply. The three of them shared a moment of commiseration before standing and making their way to the hall.

“Children,” Itachi said mildly and all of them froze and turned slowly towards them. Hinata’s arm was in a sling, but Tomomi’s bruises were gone and Orihito had his hair and eyebrows back. 

“Big brother!” Sasuke hurried over to him. He had small round bandaids on his arms and face and smelled strongly of antihistamine. “The idiot got us attacked by wasps -”

“That was your fault, bastard!”

“Naruto, shut up!”

“Enough!” Tomoaki roared and the hallway felt much smaller than it had a moment ago when his chakra expanded, dark and ominous.

For a long moment, there was silence. Itachi waited until Tomoaki had pulled his chakra in, then smiled at Hinata, who was shaking slightly. Tomomi had her arm around her shoulders and was glaring at Tomoaki in a way Itachi assumed only family could get away with. “Hinata, how is your arm?”

“F-fine, Itachi-sensei. The medic said I only needed the sling until tomorrow, and I can start training the next day.”

Itachi nodded. “Good. You will all take tomorrow off, and we will meet the day after at our usual training grounds. Orihito and Hinata, tell your parents I will be stopping by to speak to them this evening.”

“Yes, sensei,” they said before edging around the three jounin, all the while eyeing Tomoaki warily.

Itachi turned to Tomomi, who was now standing awkwardly next to the dirty and grumpy Nara boy, one hand grasping her opposite arm while she studied the floor. He sighed, then reached out and put his hand on her head. She glanced up at him, eyes swollen from crying and lip rough from biting it. He smiled at her, ignoring Sasuke’s indignant huff. He always was a jealous thing.

“Tomorrow is a new day, Tomomi.”

Her face lit up into a grin at his words and his eyes widened slightly when she stumbled forward and hugged him. “Right! Sorry, sensei, I’ll do better.”

He patted her shoulder awkwardly until she let him go and ran over to Tomoaki’s side, who had just finished giving his own team instructions. Itachi said his goodbyes and left, Sasuke trailing in his wake.

Itachi was exhausted, but he still had to speak to Orochimaru and Hiashi. Orochimaru would probably think the whole thing amusing, but Hiashi would no doubt use it as a chance to talk down to Fugaku’s son. Itachi could only hope Kushina’s plan to mend that rift by putting Hinata on his team was effective. 

His master seemed to have had many schemes and manipulations in mind when she assigned him this team.

After that, he’d need to go convince Kushina to do her own paperwork for three weeks. That would probably be the most difficult part of his day.

He took his time on his way to the Hyuuga household. Hiashi and Hizashi shared a long house tucked up against the mountain. Most of the terrace had been landscaped into a beautiful, twisty garden dotted with gazebos, benches, and ponds.

It was as serene on the surface as Hiashi himself, but tucked into shaded areas and behind rocks were some of the most poisonous plants that could be grown in the temperate climate of Wave Country. 

The beautiful rose bushes that lined the gravel walkway had long, sharp thorns beneath their leaves, and the small yellow leaves of a plant that caused paralysis when boiled down into a paste ran along the rock ledge. Itachi couldn’t come up with a better metaphor for the beautiful but prickly clan if he tried. Hinata was certainly the exception when it came to their attitudes. Not that an Uchiha could throw stones.

An hour and one awkward, passive-aggressive tea time later, he was heading towards the science district, where Orochimaru could generally be found if he wasn’t with his husband and child. 

The Science Division was located in a short, round section that jutted out of the back of one of the tall administration towers. After one too many explosions, Kushina had decided it was too dangerous to keep the Science Division in a highrise and had instead decreed that the levels should go down instead of up. 

Orochimaru’s lab was on the bottommost floor. Itachi stepped out of the elevator and sent one unimpressed look at the flickering lights casting an ominous glow in the hallway. His steps echoed across the concrete walls, the silence stifling in a way that seemed a prelude to tortured screams.

Orochimaru’s dramatic posturing got worse with every year. Itachi continued his measured steps until he reached the end of the hallway where a large, steel door held court in the otherwise plain space. Next to it, carved into neat letters on a plaque, was Orochimaru’s name and title.

The door creaked open before he could knock, the smell of formaldehyde and other unpleasant chemicals wafting out at him. He could see shelves and workbenches lined with equipment and neatly organized bottles and jars.

“Itachi, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” a low, sibilant voice called from somewhere in the back. 

Itachi stepped inside, suppressing the shiver that wanted to make its way down his spine when he spotted what looked like lungs bobbing gently in a jar next to a smaller container stuffed full of eyeballs. “Orochimaru. Please forgive the intrusion.”

Orochimaru appeared from around the corner. He was wearing a standard jounin uniform with a lab coat over the top instead of a flak jacket. His long hair was pulled up into a bun and a pair of reading glasses were perched on his nose. 

“It is no problem. I assume this is about my son? He was already here, complaining about his...adventures this afternoon.” 

Itachi hummed and moved further into the room as Orochimaru laughed, a small _fufufu_ that invited anyone to hear it to run screaming in fear instead of sharing in the joke.

“Hm, yes. He and Tomomi had a disagreement.”

“Sakumo did warn him that angering an Uzumaki had consequences.”

Itachi inclined his head, because that was a well-known fact in their village and needed no further clarification. “I believe he’s learned the lesson.”

Orochimaru shrugged, a motion that he somehow made creepy and graceful all at once. “We shall see. He is stubborn.”

Not exactly shocking, considering whose DNA he was created from. Orochimaru smiled as though he knew exactly what Itachi was thinking. He probably did, considering his age and penchant for mind games.

“I will be taking them on a training trip to one of the outer islands the day after tomorrow. We will return in three weeks’ time. Tsunade and Tomoaki’s teams will be joining us.”

Orochimaru looked down at one of his many machines and jotted something on a clipboard sitting next to it. “Oh? That _is_ a surprise. Considering who the children of this class are.”

Itachi didn’t grimace but he wanted to. Even now, all these years later, the Konoha Affair left its mark on those involved. “They are shinobi of Uzushio. They will need to leave the safety of the barrier eventually. Doing it while they have three high-ranking members of the jounin forces is a good way to test the waters.”

“Perhaps.” Itachi stiffened and Orochimaru waved a hand through the air. “Peace, Uchiha, I have no fear for my son’s safety while you are around, especially with Tsunade lurking about.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Itachi said after an awkward pause. “If you don’t have any questions for me then I will -”

“I heard that Isamu and Nami’s girl is on your team. What an interesting choice on the Hokage’s part.”

Itachi’s back straightened and he studied Orochimaru’s expression closely, but all he saw there was faint amusement. “Tomomi had nothing to do with their actions. She was a toddler at the time.”

“Hmm, yes. She still doesn’t know the truth, does she? Tut, tut, Kushina should know better than to expect a secret like that to stay secret.”

“It’s kept for nine years. It’ll keep for a few more,” Itachi said, more sharply than he’d intended. The protectiveness that rose in him for a team he’d barely had for a week was surprising, but perhaps it shouldn’t be. An Uchiha’s biggest weakness, after all, was attachment.

“Hm, so I suppose you plan to tell her when she’s a chunin?” Orochimaru said slyly and Itachi could have stabbed himself for his slip.

Still, it was too late to take it back, so he sighed and nodded. “Yes. I plan to tell her when she turns fifteen or becomes a chunin, whichever happens first. I also,” he said pointedly, “will tell her I do not blame her for the actions of her family. Tomoaki has raised her well, I know she will not follow in their footsteps.”

Orochimaru scoffed. “Please, that girl doesn’t have a traitorous bone in her body. I’d be more worried about what it will do to her spirit. It seems cruel, doesn’t it, to let her grow up thinking her parents and brother were heroes when the opposite is true.”

Itachi looked at him, blanking his expression into the cold mask he had perfected during the chunin exams in Suna. “Kushina-shishou made the decision, and I am a loyal shinobi of Uzushiogakure. It is not my place to question.”

Orochimaru’s lips turned up into a smile. “Oh? As her named successor, I’d think that was _exactly_ your place.” He waved away the subject before Itachi could respond. “It’s no matter to me, though. Keep your secrets and manipulations of children. I am but a lowly scientist, what do I know?” he said with another creepy laugh.

Itachi bowed stiffly before turning and leaving, uncaring that it was a bit rude. It wasn’t like Orochimaru would care. 

No matter how he tried to banish Orochimaru’s words from his mind, they persisted. An uncomfortable feeling was growing in him, pinching at his gut and stealing his appetite at dinner. Guilt. 

Itachi remembered the awkward hug Tomomi had given him earlier, her declaration that she would follow in the footsteps of her mother and brother without knowing what it meant. It wasn’t fair to keep the truth from her, he knew.

But since when was the life of a shinobi fair?

That night he fell into a restless sleep that almost immediately morphed into a nightmare that was as familiar as the feel of a kunai in his hand.

_The sound of his feet slapping against the water was almost lost against the booming of jutsu slamming into the barrier, lighting up the darkness of the moonless, overcast night. Each time the barrier flared he could make out the shapes of the sea life below him, scattering and heading for deeper waters and safety. Thunder rumbled in the distance, mixing with the already explosive sounds._

_Itachi’s mother was silent next to him, her own footfalls making not even a ripple where they landed. He concentrated on his own chakra flow, brow furrowed, and the sound of his own footfalls disappeared, though the water was still slightly disturbed with every step._

_Genius he may be, but his mother had years on him and was a talented kunoichi._

_“We’re almost there, Itachi,” Mikoto whispered in a silent moment, when the world had gone dark and still around them again._

_It was his first time outside of the barrier. Kushina-shishou wouldn’t let him leave until he was ten, and then only for training until he was old enough to be put on a genin team. It chafed, sometimes, but his master kept him plenty busy with other work so he didn’t have a lot of energy to complain._

_His mother stopped suddenly, and he came to a halt a few steps ahead of her, looking over his shoulder at her in question. Her lips were pressed together and she drew her sword just as five figures appeared from seemingly nowhere around them._

_For a moment, Itachi was relieved. He recognized the men and women around him, had seen them in the administration building as he helped his master with small tasks and paperwork._

_Itachi couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped his lips when one of them drew a kunai and threw it at him, but he twisted and jumped away from it, Kushina-shisou’s training kicking in even now. It was only after he’d landed that he realized he’d allowed himself to be further separated from his mother._

_Two of the figures broke off and flanked him, expressions grim and uncompromising._

_“So it’s true, then. There are traitors in our midst,” Mikoto said calmly, back straight, knees bent and sword at the ready._

_“It is not us that are the traitors,” a man with deep red hair and familiar blue eyes spat._

_Mikoto tilted her head and smiled a cool smile. “We are Uzushio shinobi.”_

_“You are Konoha. Because of you, we live locked away like animals while you take our jobs. Even our own Uzukage has lost her way, taking an Uchiha brat as her apprentice.”_

_“I can see there is no reasoning with you. Itachi.” He jolted from where he had been eyeing the two men flanking him warily. He met her gaze, and her eyes, bright red and spinning with three tomoe, softened at the corners. “You must go ahead, my son.”_

_“No!” he took a step forward but was immediately forced to step back when one of the men raised a scythe of water from the roiling waters beneath their feet. “I won’t leave you,” he said and turned to look at the man who had just tried to kill him._

_Itachi didn’t recognize him, but he guessed he was probably part of the Umino clan with his thick brown hair and the way his brown eyes turned up just slightly in the corners. Hot fury rolled through him, chasing away his shock, and he activated his Sharingan._

_He wondered in a detached, vague way if it had been one of these men who was responsible for the first time he’d activated them._

_Rain was beginning to fall around them and the fight was hazy, indistinct, the memory of it overshadowed by what happened next._

_His mother, blood running from the corners of her mouth, hands wrapped around the handle of the kunai buried in her chest. Her eyes bled back into black, an apology on her lips._

_“Go, Itachi. Find the children. I’ll finish up here.”_

_Itachi’s eyes_ burned.

Itachi jolted awake, chest tight with remembered panic and despair. Weak early morning sunlight was peeking through his blinds, memories of the night he’d lost the last fleeting strands of his childhood fading as he breathed in and out, in and out.

The cries of the twins and their pounding footsteps across the floor, intertwined with Bogo’s own clomping gait and barks, pulled him from his warm blankets a short time later. He stretched before going about the business of getting ready for the day ahead. 

He was meeting up with Tsunade and Tomoaki to prepare for the children's little...adventure. If all three of them were feeling a little vengeful for all the stress the little monsters had put them through recently, well. Through adversity, we learn, as his master always liked to say. His lips turned up slightly as he stepped out of his room.

“Big brother, why are you making that face?” Sasuke asked, steps stuttering. He was just leaving the bathroom at the end of the hall, towel over one arm and hair still wet, studying Itachi with a disturbed twist to his mouth.

Itachi’s mood elevated at the sight of his little brother’s obvious wariness. He allowed his smile to grow and Sasuke’s face paled wonderfully. 

Itachi lifted his hand and lightly poked his fingers against Sasuke’s damp forehead. “No reason, little brother. Tell Ikuko not to wait up for me, hm? I have a project that will keep me out late.”

He then spun on his heel, adding a slight bounce to his step. Sasuke made a strangled, unhappy sound behind him, and by the time Itachi was outside his face was lit with a rare, full smile.

Perhaps this little field trip wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll I'm so out of practice with editing so if I missed something dumb just tell me, I won't be sad. In fact I'll probably be glad to get it fixed before too many people read it :D
> 
> Next chapter: We discover who the mysterious fourth jounin is (any guesses?), and Shikamaru realizes his life is about to somehow, miraculously, get worse.


End file.
